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dreamsharkIf anyone is interested, I figured out how to get my unlocked iPhone to work with the prepaid data plan on my AT&T GoPhone account. Apple and/or AT&T clearly do not want people to do this, but it is neither illegal nor forbidden by AT&T's rules (at least currently). You just have to work around some obviously deliberate roadblocks.
I have come to realize, however, that there is a HUGE pitfall in any kind of iPhone data plan (unless it is an unlimited plan. In which case it is still a pitfall, but somebody other than you bears the consequences of falling into that pit). It has to do with Apple's idiotic philosophy of making it practically impossible to stop running a program. They do this on their computers too. In Windows, if you click the little x in the corner of the program window, the program stops running. On Apple machines, the program just moves into the background, but runs forever. I think there is some key-click combination that will actually stop the program, but I can never remember what it is. It doesn't matter too much on a desktop machine or laptop, although I would think that if you get enough programs running in the background you would start to run out of RAM or CPU cycles. But not a huge deal.
However, the same philosophy on an iPhone is deadly. OS 4 (unlike OS 3) has multi-tasking, which means it is now possible to run programs in the background on your iPhone. Sometimes this is extremely useful, as it makes it quick to move back and forth between, say, your address book and the Maps app. But just like on the Apple computers, this running in the background thing happens by default every time you "exit" an app. If you want it to stop running in the background you have to tap the button twice to get a list of background apps, press down on one of the apps until it starts to jiggle, and then hit the "-" on each app individually until it goes away.
Why does this matter? Well, suppose you are running Pandora, Safari, a weather app, and some kind of online game over your local WiFi connection. You step outside, lose your WiFi, and the network connection switches seamlessly to 3G. All those apps continue downloading data like crazy. How long do you think it will take to drain your 50MB/month data account?
So if you have a limited data plan - ALWAYS check your background apps before you walk out the door. I even know someone that drained his data account in his own house when his WiFi lost connection during the night with Pandora running in the background on his iPhone. Be careful out there, kids.
I have come to realize, however, that there is a HUGE pitfall in any kind of iPhone data plan (unless it is an unlimited plan. In which case it is still a pitfall, but somebody other than you bears the consequences of falling into that pit). It has to do with Apple's idiotic philosophy of making it practically impossible to stop running a program. They do this on their computers too. In Windows, if you click the little x in the corner of the program window, the program stops running. On Apple machines, the program just moves into the background, but runs forever. I think there is some key-click combination that will actually stop the program, but I can never remember what it is. It doesn't matter too much on a desktop machine or laptop, although I would think that if you get enough programs running in the background you would start to run out of RAM or CPU cycles. But not a huge deal.
However, the same philosophy on an iPhone is deadly. OS 4 (unlike OS 3) has multi-tasking, which means it is now possible to run programs in the background on your iPhone. Sometimes this is extremely useful, as it makes it quick to move back and forth between, say, your address book and the Maps app. But just like on the Apple computers, this running in the background thing happens by default every time you "exit" an app. If you want it to stop running in the background you have to tap the button twice to get a list of background apps, press down on one of the apps until it starts to jiggle, and then hit the "-" on each app individually until it goes away.
Why does this matter? Well, suppose you are running Pandora, Safari, a weather app, and some kind of online game over your local WiFi connection. You step outside, lose your WiFi, and the network connection switches seamlessly to 3G. All those apps continue downloading data like crazy. How long do you think it will take to drain your 50MB/month data account?
So if you have a limited data plan - ALWAYS check your background apps before you walk out the door. I even know someone that drained his data account in his own house when his WiFi lost connection during the night with Pandora running in the background on his iPhone. Be careful out there, kids.
